


Laser Tag Hell

by amtrak12



Series: Operation More Toltzmann [2]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: (i think), Erin & Abby are there too I just didn't tag them, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, autistic!Holtzmann, canon setting despite the reference to 'space jail'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 13:39:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7759912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amtrak12/pseuds/amtrak12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I can’t believe I’m sitting in space jail with you of all people.” or Holtzmann gets caught off guard and overwhelmed during a bust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laser Tag Hell

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't think I was going to write autistic Holtzmann until suddenly I was. It's my first time writing an autistic character so I deeply apologize ahead of time for any errors. If I screwed up too badly, definitely let me know. I have no problems deleting this if need be. I don't want to perpetuate shitty representations :/

It was dark in this little five by six feet partitioned area. The entire laser tag arena was dark, but this time-out section didn't get hit with the multicolored strobe lights that roamed the rest of the arena. Holtzmann's tinted goggles were useless against the strobe lights and only dulled the shadows more.

She didn't even know what she did to get stuck here. It wasn't like she'd been playing laser tag. She was here for a bust. There were sightings of ectoplasm in the arena and the team was here investigating. How did she get sent to the time out area?

"I can't believe I'm sitting in space jail with you of all people," came some voice from her side. "I mean, wow! This is amazing."

This boy -- man? -- boy? No, he's too old to be a child, must be a man. He sat far too close to her and kept shouting too loudly against the music playing from hidden loudspeakers.

"Dude, you were so awesome last summer. You know when those ghosts all went nuts? I see you on the news like all the time."

Too close too close. Holtzmann couldn't breathe. She flipped off her goggles, letting them hang from one ear, but her vision didn't clear. She still couldn't make sense of the flashing light and dark images in front of her. Where was she?

There'd been climbing. Some barricade in the arena that might have been meant to be a mountain. She'd needed to get on top of it to check the sprinkler head for ectoplasmic contamination. And then someone had grabbed her? And tugged her over for a time-out in... space jail? What was space jail? Why was she here?

"Hey is the rest of the team here?" the man shouted. "Do you think me and my buddies could get your autographs later?"

Holtzmann let out a rough groan and sprung up out of her seat. A different voice shouted at her to sit down when she reached the exit. This person stepped in front of her and blocked her way out.

"You still have five minutes before you can go back in."

But she'd never been in. She was working, busting ghosts. She's a Ghostbuster.

Holtzmann spun and paced the tiny, makeshift room, ignoring the ongoing protests for her to sit down. Why couldn't she get out of here? She wasn't in jail -- except she was, somehow, but she wasn't supposed to be.

Someone needed to get her out of here.

"Hey," the man said. "So what's your actual name anyway? All I know is that Erin chick."

Holtzmann groaned again and slammed her palms over her ears to block the noise. Her fingers clawed their way into her hair. _Patty_ , she mentally shouted. _Abby. Patty. Abby. Erin._ Except no, Erin didn't rhyme. Start again.

Holtzmann continued pacing and reciting the names of her teammates. She didn't know how long she'd been doing that when a new voice broke through the haze.

"Holtzy!"

 _Patty._ Holtzmann halted her pacing and opened her eyes. The dancing lights still distorted her vision, so she squeezed her eyes shut again and waited. Sure enough another 'Holtzy!' was called out. The clenching in her chest stuttered. Patty was coming. Patty would get her out.

Too, too many seconds that felt like hours passed and then Patty was at the exit arguing with the person who'd blocked her from leaving. Even if she wasn't actively working to block out all the noise of this place, Holtzmann still wouldn't have been able to hear the argument. The man in jail with her had started shouting out things again when he'd spotted Patty. Holtz just kept her eyes shut and tried to drown him out with her own recitations.

_Patty and Abby and Abby and Patty. Patty and Abby and Abby and Patty._

"Man, does that look like laser tag equipment to you?"

_Patty and Abby and Abby and Patty. Patty and Abby and Abby and Patty._

A warm hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed. "I gotcha, Holtzy. Let's get out of here."

Holtzmann opened her eyes just enough to register whenever a wall showed up in front of her so she could duck around it. Otherwise, she just let the firm grip on her shoulder guide her. Soothing would have been the wrong word to describe someone touching her shoulder just now, but the grip still represented the path to escape, it was still a line-of-sight to the end of the chaos, and for that, it was at least reassuring.

Patty got her back out of the laser tag arena and into the lobby. The lights were much brighter out here. If Holtzmann's vision hadn't still been messed up from the arena, she might have been able to see objects clearly out here, but everything was blurry and muddled.

She still caught a glimpse of a rocket ship painted on the wall on the way out the door. Rocket ship -- space. Time-out -- jail. Space jail. It still didn't make any sense.

Fresh New York City air hit her as they stepped outside the laser tag building. Ecto-1, her beautiful, beautiful team car, was still parked right out front where they left it.

"Do you want to wait inside the car or out here?" Patty asked, letting go of her shoulder.

Holtzmann relaxed her hands and lowered them away from her ears. She blinked a few times.

"Outside." She didn't want to be stuck inside another enclosed space so soon even if it would be quieter in the car.

"Okay. Are you going to be alright by yourself for a bit? I've gotta find Abby and Erin again."

Holtzmann gave a short nod that came out a little jerky. Oh well. Patty wouldn't say anything.

"Here let's get your pack off."

"No!" Holtzmann latched onto the straps of her proton pack in a death grip. She wasn't ready for her pack to be removed yet. She needed that weight against her back to keep herself from floating away.

"Okay, that's fine," Patty said. "I'm gonna go back in and get the others, okay? You good?"

Holtzmann nodded again, a bit smoother this time. She was so grateful Patty wasn't leaning in close to talk to her right now.

"Okay, I'll be back soon."

Holtzmann fiddled with the straps of her pack while Patty disappeared inside. The texture of the straps felt nice and she ran her fingers back and forth over them, again and again and again.

\---

By the time, Patty returned with Erin and Abby, Holtzmann was sitting on the curb. She was still wearing the proton pack, though now most of the weight was resting on the sidewalk. Her beloved 'screw u' necklace was in her mouth. She wasn't supposed to chew on it. It was pure metal and bad for the enamel on her teeth, but she couldn't help it right now. Her teeth slotted against the grooves of the screw so nicely, and the screw's sharp point felt good against her fingers as she held the pendant up to her mouth.

She had calmed enough that she could glance over towards the team as they walked over.

"Was it a ghost?" she asked, talking around the necklace. She couldn't see a smoking ghost trap anywhere, but she might not be looking up enough.

"No," Erin answered. "There wasn't even any ecotplasm. The wall was just sticky from spilled pop."

"And you can bet we're charging him triple for that," Patty said. "Wasting our time cause someone can't tell the difference between ghost slime and a soda wall."

Holtzmann shifted her teeth to a different groove in her necklace.

"How you doing, Holtz?" Abby bent down to ask.

Holtzmann stared at her shoulder. "I'm good."

She thought she saw Abby frown in the corner of her eye.

"Where's your other necklace at?"

Holtz bit down harder on her pendant. She had a different necklace with beads that were actually safe to chew, but she'd set it down somewhere at the fire house and had yet to find it again.

She shrugged.

"Okay well, try not to chew on this one too much. Literally saying screw you to the dentist only seems fun until they pull out the drill."

Bleh. Holtzmann dropped the pendant from her mouth. She regretted it instantly, but chewing on the metal necklace worried Abby too much. She ran her fingernails over the grooves of the screw instead. It wasn't as satisfying, but she could make do.

The unneeded equipment got loaded back into the car. Then, Patty drove them home after Abby and Erin spent a moment too long debating over which of them was a better driver.

It was a relief to step back into the fire house. Holtzmann knew this place, and she made a beeline for her workbench, not even bothering to change from her coveralls. The equipment hadn't glowed enough in the dark laser tag arena; she needed to add some reflective panels to it. And maybe the logo patches on their uniforms should glow in the dark too; Holtzmann could suggest it to Abby later. She'd been the one to order the original patches. A portable analyzer would be handy, so they could check samples for ectoplasm out in the field and identify false alarms quicker.

She unscrewed the panel of their in-house analyzer and started studying the circuitry for how to make it smaller.

\---

She didn't know how much time passed as she worked. She was dimly aware of the others talking and walking around in the background, but mostly she tuned them out and focused only on the task in front of her. Eventually, she had a rough design for the analyzer in mind, and welded together the analyzer's frame. As she was testing the circuit boards for it, Patty suddenly appeared and slid a plate across the table to her.

"I know you're deep in your work right now, but you still need to eat tonight," Patty said.

Holtzmann paused her fiddling with a loose capacitor and looked over at the plate. Her favorite sub sandwich sat on it, cut into the more manageable thirds instead of in half. The Italian dressing was in a cup on the side instead of on the sandwich, and there was an unopened can of plain Pringles sitting next to the plate.

Holtzmann let out a slow breath that for all she knew she'd been holding since the laser tag arena.

"Thanks, Patty."

"You're welcome, baby." She patted the table near Holtzmann's hand. "You let us know if you need anything else."

Holtzmann didn't look up at Patty, but the corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile. She hummed a bit as she took the first bite of her sandwich, and she knew Patty was smiling too even if she couldn't glance over to see it.

She swallowed and took another bite. Refocused on her new circuit boards. The tension of the evening finally began to slip away.

**Author's Note:**

> I've received a couple of prompts on Tumblr now. Thanks if you sent them in! I'm going to do a couple more random sentence prompts before I move on to the Toltzmann specific ones. I'm still up for more, so if you have any requests come find me at user id: amtrak12 :)


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